The government pledged today to tackle the UK's "damaging" compensation culture with a shakeup of health and safety measures, including an end to "senseless" rules and regulations.

David Cameron said he hoped a review carried out by former Conservative minister Lord Young would prove to be a "turning point", with a new system being introduced to replace "unnecessary bureaucracy".

In a statement, the London art gallery said: "Tate has been advised that this dust could be damaging to health following repeated inhalation over a long period of time. In consequence, Tate, in consultation with the artist, has decided not to allow visitors to walk across the sculpture."

Cameron, in a foreword to Young's report, said the government would curtail the promotional activities of claims and management companies he said had helped fuel the compensation culture.

"We're going to focus regulations where they are most needed, with a new system that is proportionate, not bureaucratic, that treats adults like adults, and reinstates some common sense and trust," he said.

Business groups welcomed the review, but the TUC complained that the report did not contain a single proposal that would reduce the high levels of workplace death, injuries and illness.

Young said that despite the success of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, the standing of health and safety in the eyes of the public had never been lower.

There was a "growing fear" among business owners of having to pay out for even the most unreasonable claims, the peer said.

"Press articles recounting stories where health and safety rules have been applied in the most absurd manner, or disproportionate compensation claims have been awarded for trivial reasons, are a daily feature of our newspapers.

"Businesses now operate their health and safety policies in a climate of fear. The advent of 'no win, no fee' claims and the all-pervasive advertising by claims management companies have significantly added to the belief that there is a nationwide compensation culture.

"The 'no win, no fee' system gives rise to the perception that there is no financial risk to starting litigation. Indeed, some individuals are given financial enticements to make claims by claims management companies who are in turn paid ever-increasing fees by solicitors. Ultimately, all these costs are met by insurance companies who then increase premiums."

Young said the system for claiming compensation was a growing industry and urged that the incentives for claiming compensation had to change.

He recommended that a scheme recently introduced for road traffic accidents be extended to cover straightforward personal injury claims, which he said would deliver a "simple, cheaper and quicker resolution" of claims.

He also proposed tighter regulation of advertising by claim management companies.

The government said it accepted all the recommendations in the report, Common Sense, Common Safety, with the aim of improving the perception of health and safety, ensuring it was taken seriously by employers and the general public, while making the burden on small business as "insignificant" as possible.

Young also called for a "revolution" in the way personal injury claims were handled.

He proposed a "common-sense approach" to educational trips, which he said currently entailed a plethora of forms to fill in, deterring teachers and others who work with children from arranging any trips at all.

He recommended a single consent form covering all activities a child might undertake at school.

Young said: "For too long, health and safety has been allowed to become a joke in the media and among the public. It's about time it was taken seriously. I believe that the best way to do this is to ease the burden in places where health and safety is not an issue, and to discourage the compensation culture that has spread fear of litigation throughout our society."

But Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC said the reviews recommendations were "a grave disappointment".

"The report contains not a single proposal that will reduce the high levels of workplace death, injuries and illness. Every year in the UK over 20,000 people die prematurely as a result of their work and at any one time over two million people are suffering ill-health because of their jobs.

"Yet instead of looking for ways of preventing people being killed and injured, the report uncritically accepts the myths and preconceptions surrounding health and safety, and focuses on dealing with a compensation culture which the government accepts does not exist." He called the report a missed opportunity to improve the UK's workplace safety record and said: "It could actually make things much worse."

By contrast, Adam Marshall of the British Chambers of Commerce said the recommendations were "sensible and long overdue".

"Businesses have long said that health and safety rules cannot be applied to hazardous environments and offices in the same way – and that there are too many burdens involved in allowing employees to work from home."

"Every Shrove Tuesday is a pancake race in St Albans," the peer told the conference in Birmingham earlier this month. "This year, just before the start, along appears a jobsworth from the local authority. He said that as it had been raining they must walk, not run, and always keep one foot on the ground. Why? He had no authority to do that. What has it got to do with him?

"Remember when they stopped the traditional cheese rolling downhill race in Wiltshire? If I want to take a risk it is up to me. It is nothing to do with the local authority. Nor is telling people to remove hanging baskets in the street. Just on an official's say-so."

Andrew Tucker of Irwin Mitchell solicitors of Sheffield said: "We welcome Lord Young's conclusion that the compensation culture is a 'perception rather than reality' but the irony is that some of his comments risk fuelling the myth further. Many so-called examples of compensation culture are in fact cases where health and safety consultants or local officials have totally misinterpreted reasonable laws."